Great Britain

In the following list "/|\" represents the Broad Arrow in the headstamp.

Note

¹ Not thought to have ever been used on .303 inch ammunition.

² Although a military style headstamp, this was probably commercially produced ammunition for the Maxim Company to sell with their machine guns. This should not be confused with the American Maxim Company that produced ammunition with a similar headstamp in W.W.I.

³ "GB" is also found on some 9mm Ball purchased from Bolivia in 1941. In this case the characters are at 9 and 3 o'clock with no other data.

⁴ Found on 9mm Inspection dummies only.

In addition to the above, several of the major ammunition manufacturers were requested by the Ministry of Munitions early in 1916 to operate and manage peripheral factories in order to meet wartime needs. These were known as Government Cartridge Factories and were at the following locations.

G.C.F.1. Blackheath, Staffs., managed by Birmingham Metals and Munitions Co.

G.C.F.2. Royal Laboratory, Woolwich

G.C.F.3. Blackpole, Worcs., managed by Kings Norton Metal Co.

G.C.F.4. Edmonton, London, managed by Eley Brothers

Whilst the factories were still being made ready it was found that supplies of .303 inch ammunition were adequate but the Russians were in urgent need of 7.62 x 54mm ammunition. Accordingly the British Government arranged for the G.C.F.’s to produce this and it was not until late 1917 that the position was reversed and the factories were changed back to .303 inch production.

Cartridge Factory No.1 produced .303 inch ammunition from April 1918 until the end of the war, No.2 from early 1918 and No.3 from December 1917. Factory No.4, managed by Eley Bros., had a disappointing performance and so was closed down in 1918, the buildings being taken over by the Air Board on 1st April 1918. Although a small amount of 7.62mm ammunition was made there, it is unlikely that any .303 inch was ever produced at this factory.

The headstamps of the Government Cartridge Factories were:

Cartridge Factory 1 G.(date).F.1

Cartridge Factory 3 G.(date).F.3

Cartridge Factory 4 G.(date).F.4

As the entire management of G.C.F.2 at Woolwich was in the hands of the Chief Superintendent of Ordnance Factories, once production of 7.62mm ammunition had commenced for Russia it was decided to integrate G.C.F.2 into the Royal Laboratory as Cartridge Factory No.6 and use the normal RÓL headstamp.

It is worth noting that the “G” in these headstamps often appears to be a “C.